A few weeks after one special election upset and a close local election, Gov. Scott Walker rallied local supporters to get out the vote in elections the rest of the year.

“The wake up call is that we cannot assume that our neighbors know about the positive things we’re doing here in Wisconsin — we can’t assume it,” Gov. Scott Walker said during the Washington County GOP Brunch and Caucus held in West Bend Jan. 28.

Walkers comments came less than two weeks after Republicans lost a Jan. 16 special election in northwest Wisconsin, as St. Croix County Medical Examiner Patty Schachtner upset Rep. Adam Jarchow to win a State Senate seat that had been held by Republican Sheila Harsdorf for 16 years before she resigned in November to become Walker’s agriculture secretary. That same evening, Rick Gundrum won a special election in Washington County, being elected to fill the remainder of the 58th Assembly District term. However, the race was competitive, as Gundrum defeated Democratic Party candidate Dennis Degenhardt by a 56.56 to 43.37, while Degenhardt won wards in the city of West Bend.

During his comments to local Republicans, Walker referenced his State of the State speech and noted it was twice as long as speeches he presented in past years.

“For years I’ve said the state of our state is strong. I didn’t say that this year: I said the state of our state is historically strong,” Walker said. “We have a larger workforce than ever before, we have a historically low unemployment rate, we made historic investments in the K-12 education, we had the largest economic development project in history of the state (the Foxconn development), one of the largest in the history of the nation. There are amazingly good things happening in this state.”